Manufacture of gasolene



F. E, WELLMAN.

MANUFACTURE 0F GASOLENE.

APPLICATION FILED )UNE 24,1919.

Patented Dec. 14, 1920.

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attorney bmb 2E a F. E. WELLMAN.

MANUFACTURE 0F GASOLENE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24,1919.

1,362,160, Patented Dec. 14, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FRANK E. WELLMAN, lOIF' KANSAS CITY, KANSAS.

MANUFACTURE 0F GASOLENE.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 1 4, 1920.

Application meu June 94, 1919. serial No. 306,321.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FRANK E. WELLMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at I Kansas City, in the county of VVyand'ottev and State ofKansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the'Manufacture of Gasolene, of which the following is a specification,reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing. y y inventionrelates to the treatment o hydrocarbons for the purpose of produc- 'ingfrom such hydrocarbons of relatively high boiling points, otherhydrocarbons of much lower boiling points, such as the vcommercialproduct known as gasolene or motor fuel which is in the paraffin series.

My process to be specifically described hereinafter, is an improvementprimarily over that disclosed in the Leffer French Patent No. 439,476,issued June 14, 1912. Incidentally it involves certain changes andimprovements which fall generally in the same class as those describedin U. S. patents to Burton, No. 1,049,667, January 7, 1913, andHumphreys, No. 1,119,700, December 1, 1914. The manner in which myprocess differentiates from the Burton and Humphreys processes, will beevident from the detailed description.y

" Generally stated, my process is one of recracking, with refluxcondensation, some initial condensation under pressure, and a separatefinal release and condensation or cooling of the heavier products whichhave been cracked. I make no claim, broadly, to either refluxcondensation or re-cracking, as these were both old in the art beforethe date of the French patent hereinbefore referred to.

. Neither do I claim, broadly, the ideas of egulating temperatures orpressures or oth.

The problems presented are solved by my present process, by causingpressure to be restrained effectively .between thecracking still and theinitial condenser without mechanical moving. parts, and also by main-4taining pressure by means of an inert gas such .as nitrogen, or thegases remaining upon the new charge of oil when it is placed in thecracking still. Autogenous pressure of course does not begin to operateso as to raise the operative pressure in the still, un-

-til the lighter vapors are driven o" by heat. It is during this periodof initial heating that fixed gases and very light condensable productsare given olf'in greatest volume, due to the lack of chemicalequilibrium. Among the lighter products in the paraffin series whichmust he permitted from the outset, are those within the limiting rangeofso-called gasolene which in this, as in other cracking processes, isthe principal product sought. I first charge my cracking still underpressure of an inert gas or gases,

' as above, then close the inlet pipe, both for oil and air, and subjectthe charge tohigh tem The initial pressure is sufficient perature. tobalanceI the gas pressure for the initial temperature, and the initialproduct is separately removed, preferably through means which save heatand avoid mechanical losses, andl condensed, This initial product isknown around the refineries as benzin or crude gasolene. I t differs inmy present process in no wise from the usual natural run of', gasolenewhich is usually taken oft' at the beginning of the Rittman and otherwell-known processes, but owing to my use of the principle of pressureby inert gas, it is more copious in yield because of the balance orequilibrium which prevents or checks the formation of fixed gas. Afterpassing off this initial yield, Vand as the temperature rises, I providefor continued cracking, with constant reflux.

While the reflux and re-cracking part of my processis proceeding Icontinue to carry off the gasolene yield, which is condensed by itself.After this slackens, the contents of the cracking still are bodily'discharged byv means of their own pressure, and the contents separatelycooled and condensed, after which, as an ancillary feature, I may scourout the still with superheated steam under high pressure, beforere-charging. The condensate blown out is in the aggregate lighter thanthe body of the original charge, and may be further treated to extractits lighter constituents.

In carrying out my process I make use of certain apparatus which I havedesigned for that purpose, which may be briefly described as follows:

A horizontal cracking tube is employed, with a pressure discharge valveat one end leading to a receivingotank, through a cooling coil. Thisvalve is closed until the end of the operation. From the top .ofthe tuberises an inclined run-back which for -various reasons is made large.From this run-back or refiux chamber a gasolene pipe is taken oif to anordinary condenser. To the same run-back a feed pipe for chargingoilunder.- pressure of an inert gas or gases, such as nitrogen, isconnected, as also a steam pipe for scouring.

I shall claim the separate discharge means y in combination with theother parts of this system, z'. e., to the gasolene pipe and condenseron thev one hand, and the. blow-o ut discharge on the other. Whileseparate d1schargepipes for the same still are broadly old, they havenever, to my knowledge, been used in' such a system as this, nor for mypurpose.

My inventlon is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which-Figure 1 is a diagram showing a complete system, and y F'g. 2 is asimilar diagram showing a low pressure condenser and its connections.

Referring to Fig. 1, the apparatus consists of a horizontal crackingtube or retortl, which is 2O feetlong and 8 inches in diameter, fromwhich, toward one end, extends upwardly at an angle of about degrees afractionator tube or reflux pipe 4, which is supposed to have about thesame diameter and cubical capacity as the horizontal or cracking retort.In 'one successful example this tube was 27 feet by 10 inches indiameter. From the upper en'd of this sloping coil 17 and thence into astorage tank 18.

The horizontal tube 1 is filled substantially full of the oil to becracked. All

valves shown in the drawings are closed with the exception of thepressure regulating valve. 11 beyond the light distillate condenser. Theoil is heated to about 850 F. according to the notation on the drawing;but the operating temperature is usually in excess of 850 F., Thepressure-regulating or throttling valve is set to give an autogenouspressure in the vapor space provided by the sloping pipe of from 100 to150 pounds, the degree of pressure used in any particular instancedepending upon the pressure necessary to prevent vaporization of theheavier oils. Under these conditions, the oil vapors generated fill thesloping fr'actionator tube 4, and such as are not.condensed therein passout through the gasolene line 7 and are condensed under pressure in theworm 8, any accompanying fixed gases being'allowed to escape in theusual way. A certain proportion of the heavier vapors condenses in thefractionator tube 4 and refluxes to the hori- I zontal.' tube 1 forfurther cracking. As shown, no special cooling means for thefractionator'or reflux tube is used, simple air cooling being reliedupon.

Thedistillation is continued until somewhat less 'than twoethirds of thebatch is distilled off. At this point, thepdischarge valve 16 at the endof the horizontalcracking tube 1`is opened and the residue isautomatically blown out through the cooling coil 17 into Athe `storagetank 18. From the residue a small percentage 'of gasolene may beobtained by straight distillation.

After the heavy residuum has been blown out of the cracking tube, highpressure steam is admitted through the inlet 6 at the upper end of thereflux tube 4 and' the entire apparatus is thoroughly flushed out toremove carbon deposits, etc.- A fresh charge of oil is'then introduced,and the operations alreadydescribed are repeated.

lThe cracking tube 1 may have welded heads, but it shown with'boltedheads 2 and 3. The'cooling coil 17 'must be of large diameter and thevalve 16 is preferably included in that portion within the cooling wateror else provided with special cooling means. The tank 18 may be providedwith any desired form of relief valve set to blow off at a properressure.

Referring to ig. 2, the parts are the same in their general arrangement,the horizontal cracking tube, the inclined vapor chamber and thegasolene line leading to the condenser .being employed as before. Thechokin'g effect of this benzene line which i stated is preferably of linch pipe is enhanced by inc uding in its length a coil or worm 20, inaclosed tank 21 having an oil charging pipe 22 through which oil may bepumped or otherwise forced into the tank,` an air pipe 23 through whicha Vneutral agency as air under pressure may be pumped in to produceconstant pressure on the oil, and aldischarge pipe 24 leading to thecharging or inlet pipe 5. of the vapor chamber and cracking tube. Inthis case the condenser or worm 8 is made of pipe of large 7 diameterrelatively` to the gasolene line whereby vapors leaving the latter willexpand into the condenser and any pressure remaining will be lost asthey condense on the cool walls of the worm.I Obviously this worm may bereplaced by a dephlegmator or a cylindrical condenser, or any otherdesired form of cooling chamber, provided the volume of content is largeenough to permit expansion from the pipe 7. In this case there is nonecessity for a pressure regulating valve outside the condenser at all,and

'the only valves shown so located are the draw-olf valve 25 of thereceiving tank 12,

Ation in the apparatus than in the forms hereinbefore referred to asrequiring valves. In this sense my present apparatus and process Y arein the nature of Aan improvement over those described in, the Burton andHump hreys patents, as IWell as over my own revlous applications ySerialNo. 142,545, led

Jan. 15, 1917 and Serial No. 168,223, iled May l2, 1917.

I desire it to be understood that a number of changesmay be made in theapparatus described without departing from the invention, such as theuse of any one of the throttling elements described without the others,or the substitution of equivalent It is of course necessary to maintainpressure 1n the vapor chamber substantially equivalent to that in thecracking chamber,

in order that the heavier fractions may circulate and be cracked bycontinued heating under pressure. This in itself is very old, beingshown in such patents `as for example that to Laing 471,291, grantedMarch 22, 1892, in which the pipe B performs the same function. as myvapor chamber or reflux )ipe 4, and the throttling effect is produced bya loaded valve S instead of by the gasolene' line. The pressuredescribed by Laing is 80 pounds per square inch for operating on oilhaving a specific gravity of .970 which is of the saine order, butsomewhat higher than the run of the oilsl with which I have successfullyoperated the present system which are downward (in gravity) of 38 B.

lVhi'le I have shown and described herein only afsingle unit consistingof the cracking tube 1, vapor chamber 4, etc., it is to be understoodthat in practice I preferably use' these in batteries, with sucharrangements of valves and pipes as to effect economical as well asefiicient transmission and condensation of the vapors. I have deemed itunnecessary to show such a battery in this application, the drawingsbeing mere diagrams and the descriptlon restricted thereto for thesakeof clearness and simplicity.

Having thus described my invention what I cla-im and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

Apparatus-of the class described comprising the followinginstrumentalities: a. cracking chamber, a discharge pipe anda control`ling valve for same, a supplemental elevated vapor chamber arranged todrain back heavy liquid fractions into the cracking chamber, acondenser, and a line of p ipe connecting an elevated part of the vaporchamber with said condenser, said condenser being of such materia-l,form and dimensions as to have a large capacity relatively to thedeliverycapacity'of said pipe at high initial pressures and said pipehaving a very small capacity relatively to said vapor chamber wherebypressure will be automatically retained in said vapor chamber, and thevapors passing through the pipe under pressure from the vapor chamberwill expand into the condenser, and lose their pressure in so doing. A

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

FRANK E. WELLMAN.

